A
decision point is at hand: to blog or not to blog. The annual fee to retain my
domain is coming due or I will lose it. Frankly, I’m ambivalent. I haven’t been
blogging much since Cynthia died, and blogging, nor much of anything else,
hasn’t seemed as important to me since she passed away. On the other hand, there’s
a lot of disgusting stuff going on about which to bitch and moan.

I’ve
decided to continue the blog until the next presidential election in 2020, and
retire the domain thereafter, whatever the election’s result. During this time,
I intend to write about threatened rights, such as freedom of speech and
privacy, beginning below.

My
position as an absolutist regarding freedom of speech is being challenged
currently. There’s some particularly disgusting speech being thrown around
today. Hate speech, politically motivated lies to frighten or motivate voters
generated by bots, out and out lies about just about everything from President Trump and resurrected,
unfortunate comments about race and gender by public figures made years ago, to
name just a few.

Which
brings me to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who posted a picture of himself
in blackface on his medical school yearbook page. Many have called for him to
resign over it. I support Governor Northam’s refusal to do so for three reasons
relating largely to freedom of speech issues.

First,
there is nothing illegal about wearing blackface. It’s offensive, it’s stupid
and it’s antiquated, but it does not rise to a high crime, nor even a misdemeanor.
For that matter, it’s not a crime to be a bigot, even if Northam were one,
which I doubt, because…

Two,
in public office, Northam’s actual deeds have been liberal and in my view enlightened on social issues. He has
evinced little if any bigotry or xenophobia. In fact, just the opposite. He has,
for example, supported moving Confederate statues and monuments from the public
square to a museum, which is where they belong.

Finally, popular opinion has changed
dramatically, and for the better, since Northam was in medical school. In this new
environment, the 80s seem a long time ago, in absolute years (30), and
certainly in the light years speed of social change. I’m not comfortable
judging peoples’ past remarks and behavior by present standards, particularly
when current behavior is so much more enlightened. We grow.

Accusations regarding Lt.
Governor Justin Fairfax are a different story. He’s accused of sexual assault,
an actual crime. I’m still uncomfortable about judging people’s past deeds in a
period when attitudes are changing rapidly, but a crime is a crime, and just
because it may have been ignored or tolerated in the past doesn’t mean it
shouldn’t be enforced now. If charges against Fairfax are proven, I think he
should go.

I don’t know enough about Virginia’s Attorney General, who is also being looked at askance due to earlier behavior, to comment on his situation, but it sniffs of overwrought political correctness from this distance.